1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of social interaction and information management relative to social interactions and pertains particularly to systems and methods enabling identity publishing and publisher contact during business or social interaction in a secure manner protecting the identities of publishers.
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of social interaction network management, there are network-based systems that exist to provide users with social interaction opportunities. Some social interaction networks are highly structured and moderated networks that impose at least a few conditions on users. One typical condition imposed is that the user has to be logged into a provider site in order to interact with other users belonging to the same network or group.
Depending on network architecture and features, members of the group may, when logged into the group infrastructure, publish information like profile data, contact information, and general media including blogs, pictures, video, documents, etc. Some published information becomes generally available to the public while other information is available to anyone who is also a member to the group and has authenticated correctly. While some controls exist for publishers like abuse reporting, user blocking and the like most identity protective measures are ad hoc and up to the publisher to enforce on a case by case basis. Networks with these types of difficulties include such as Myspace™ Facebook™, and others. There are very few if any measures in place to protect identities of publishers who actively communicate with other users of the group accept for group email and messaging programs that are restricted to group members having accounts with the service. Users and publishers have to be “logged in” to communicate and are restricted to the in-house messaging systems erected and managed for the group.
The inventor is aware of general contact systems that are network-based, which enable users who are not logged into any group or social network to make contact with an individual that has published identity information where the contact parameters of the individual are masked from the user. These systems, an example of which is Linkedin™ are managed as a network of users who simply wish to do business but do not want users to have their email addresses or telephone numbers. Individuals such as these are most often grouped not by any social network, but by association to a business that uses the service. The contact mechanism is published typically on the business Web page of the user. The location of the user's contact information is static meaning that it cannot be readily moved to some other network location. Other limitations include the way that the identity and contact information is presented for interaction.
What is clearly needed is a system and methods for enabling publishers to publish information including options for contacting them while enabling them to enjoy freedom of distribution location of the published information and contact options in a way that provides a user-configurable level of identity protection that may extend past contact parameter masking. Such a system, if used widely, would greatly reduce instances of identity abuse and other related crimes associated with unauthorized acquisition of identity information.